How to Break a Toaster
by Phantom2000
Summary: Many fan stories reference how often the toaster breaks, but they don't always explain how. This story will be based on the 2012 TV show and will be about the various toaster problems that the turtles have. The chapters will not relate to each other much. The only trait they will have in common is that the toaster will be broken at least once in each chapter.
1. Chapter 1

**Many TMNT stories on are about or reference the toaster breaking (which often involves Leo). This led me to wonder how the toaster gets broken. This will not be primarily about Leo, but the first few chapters will be. The chapters won't build on each other much, but that may change as I write more of the story. I will try to update this at least once every three months, but the frequency depends on how fast I write/edit chapters.**

**While I wrote this thinking of the 2012 series, you can read it as any incarnation of the turtles you like. There may be some unintended influences from the other TMNT series or from other fan fictions I have read. For the sake of this fan fiction, the 'oldest' is Leo, then Raph, Donnie, and Mikey (in that order). I don't know how any of them can be 'older/younger' than the others, since they turned 15 on the same day, but that's the feeling I got from the show, so that's the way it will be in this fic.**

**Special thanks go to both of my sisters, who helped me edit this and come up with ideas for it. I would also like to thank The Phantom-Otaku and Althea Sirius for beta reading this.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT or any of the websites/videos I got ideas from.**

* * *

Mikey was not feeling well. While Leo felt sorry for his brother, it was something unavoidable that all of them had to deal with at some point in time (The orange masked turtle kind of deserved it this time, since he had insisted on eating month old pizza covered in mayo, both of which had been left out in his room). The katana wielder was grateful for the break in pranks that he usually got when his youngest brother was sick. There was only one problem: he now had to make breakfast.

One of the middle brothers would normally make breakfast when Mikey was sick, but neither of them were able to today. Donnie had started a time sensitive experiment in his lab right before practice, and while it could wait till their training finished, it might cause an explosion if left too long. Also, the last time the purple masked turtle had made breakfast when he was in the middle of an experiment, he had accidentally mixed the chemicals he was working on with the eggs, thus ruining both breakfast and his experiment. Raph, in one of many fits of rage, had broken a door, the TV, the blender, and the cheese phone earlier that week. As a punishment, Master Splinter had assigned him two hours of meditation immediately after training every day for two weeks. By the time either of them was available again, it would be closer to lunch than breakfast.

While Leo would not mind skipping breakfast for a day, he was planning on meditating before lunch, and it would be difficult if his stomach was growling the entire time (sure, he could watch Space Heroes now, and meditate later, but that would throw off his _routine_). Raph and Master Splinter would not be needing breakfast. Their Sensei usually made his own, and the red-clad turtle wouldn't finish meditating until it was closer to lunch than breakfast. Mikey would most likely want to eat, although nothing was ever certain when the youngest turtle was sick. Donnie should also probably have something prepared for him, since he usually forgot to eat when he was in the middle of one of his experiments.

Now the only question was, what should he make? The only thing he really knew how to make was tea, and he had a feeling neither of his brothers would appreciate having tea for breakfast. He didn't want to try making scrambled eggs. The last time he had tried, he had accidentally mixed the shells in with the eggs, and had somehow undercooked half of them and burned the rest. He also didn't want his breakfast to make his youngest brother feel worse than he already did, especially since _he_ would then have to clean up the resulting mess. They were out of milk, so cold cereal was also out. That left toast.

The toaster didn't _seem_ difficult to operate (of course, the same could be said for making scrambled eggs). All you had to do was to pull down on the lever and wait for the toast to pop up again. Although he had never done it himself, he had seen Mikey do it thousands of times. How hard could it be?

He found the bread and butter and placed them on the counter next to the toaster. He got out six slices, two for each of them, and buttered them. Mikey's had the most butter, since the orange masked turtle always put at least an eighth of a stick of butter on his toast every morning. Leo's and Donnie's only had enough butter to cover the bread. He put his slices of bread into the toaster and waited.

When the bread had finished toasting, the butter had melted, and the toast was decent, even if it wasn't as good as when Mikey made it. He put the purple masked turtle's slices in next and took them to the lab as soon as they came out of the toaster. Donnie, who was in the middle of his experiment, barely acknowledged him when he entered. When asked where he should put the toast, his second youngest brother told him to put it by the computer and that he would eat it later. Leo complied. He was fairly certain the genius would forget to eat the toast, but he didn't want to push it. He then went back to the kitchen to make his youngest brother's toast. When he had finished, he took it to Mikey, and went back to the kitchen again to clean up.

Now, when he had taken the last two pieces of toast out of the toaster, the blue-clad turtle had noticed that some butter seemed to be missing. He did not think much of it since butter melts and he figured the bread had just absorbed it. However, when he was putting the toaster away, he found out where the missing butter had gone. It had gotten all over the inside of the toaster.

Leo didn't know a lot about toasters, but he was fairly certain that having _that_ much butter on the inside of the toaster was a bad thing. He also knew that if he just left it like that, one of his brothers was sure to notice. When they eventually found out who had done it (and they _would_ find out), they would never let him hear the end of it. He also knew that if it was like any of the other electronics in the lair, it would probably break if it came in contact with too much water, and then Donnie would have to fix it. He had already broken the microwave earlier that week (how was he supposed to know that Mikey had dropped a metal fork in the tomato soup he was trying to heat up?). He did not want to find out how the second youngest turtle would react if he broke something else, so he decided that the best course of action would be to ask his genius brother how to get the butter out. He picked up the toaster and walked across the lair to the lab.

The oldest turtle knew it was a bad idea to interrupt Donnie when he was in the middle of an experiment, especially when one was approaching him with something they had broken. Everyone in the family still remembered what had happened the last time the orange masked turtle had done so.

Mikey had been watching one of his oldest brother's Space Heroes DVDs without permission. He had somehow soaked the DVD player in orange juice, and the device was refusing to eject the disc. The youngest turtle didn't want to find out how the blue-clad leader would react when he learned that Mikey had been watching _Leo's_ DVDs, so he decided to ask his mechanically inclined brother for help.

When Mikey had initially asked Donnie to fix the DVD player, the bo wielder had said that he would do it later. He was in the middle of a very delicate procedure involving the Shellraiser, and he wanted to finish it before moving onto something else. His younger brother, fearing the wrath of Leo, had badgered him to fix it right away. This caused the purple-clad turtle to use the welding torch on the wrong component, thus ruining the part he was working with.

Donnie rarely got angry, even when his brothers ruined what he was working on. He got aggravated and annoyed, yes, but not angry. This time was different. It had taken him months in the junkyard to find the specific part he needed. When he had finally found it, he had spent at least two weeks fixing it so he could use it on the Shellraiser. After that, it had taken even longer for him to decide where exactly he wanted to put it. Now all that work was wasted. He didn't know when he would find another part that was anything like what he needed. In a rare fit of rage, he turned toward his younger brother and shouted for him to get out of his lab immediately.

Mikey could tell that Donnie was furious, and he decided that he didn't want to be in the same room as his purple-clad brother at the moment. He whipped around and tried to flee, but he tripped over a cord and fell on the ground by the genius turtle's desk. The DVD player he had been holding flew across the floor of the lab, and his older brother's laptop, which was connected to the cord, fell onto him. The orange masked turtle had tried to stop his fall by grabbing the desk, but he had placed his hand on a large blueprint of the Shellraiser that Donnie had been looking at. The young scientist had been using some beakers with chemicals in them to keep the blueprint flat, and when Mikey grabbed the blueprint, both it and the chemicals came down on top of him. Most of them fell on the back of his shell, head, legs, and arms, but random splotches had also gotten onto the front of him.

Donnie, who was now more concerned than angry, ran over to his orange masked brother to see if he was okay. After helping Mikey up, he told his younger brother to take a shower. He checked to see if any of the chemicals would have side effects, and thankfully, there was only one. He had been studying luminescence and thus had been creating different solutions that glowed in the dark. He was trying to make them glow different colors, and had succeeded in creating blue, purple, pink, green, and grey. While the orange-clad turtle had taken a shower almost immediately, some chemical residue remained. Unfortunately for Mikey, this residue interfered with his ability to go topside.

Mutant ninja turtles who only went out at night, while not exactly easy to hide (especially when Raph and Mikey got in an argument), were at least somewhat stealthy. While some humans had seen them, most of New York was still not aware they existed. This most certainly would have changed if Mikey had been allowed to leave the lair during the week following the accident. Even a ninjitsu master would have a difficult time concealing himself if he was a mutant turtle that was _glowing_ multiple colors. The youngest turtle had been forced to stay home until the chemicals wore off.

Donnie had finished that experiment a few weeks ago, so Leo wasn't particularly worried about glowing if he interrupted his second youngest brother. There were, however, many other things that could happen if one interrupted the purple masked turtle that were equally bad, if not worse. With some apprehension, Leo entered the lab. Donnie was on his computer, which usually meant he was not working on an experiment. Just in case, the blue-clad turtle decided to ask him.

"Hey Donnie, you done with your experiment yet?" he asked.

Luckily for Leo, Donnie _had_ just finished working with the experiment. He was quite pleased with his results and was entering them on his computer.

"What do you want Leo?" he asked. His brothers never came into the lab unless they wanted something.

The eldest turtle, sensing that his brother was in a good mood (or at least a better mood than normal after an interruption), brought up what had happened to the toaster.

"Well, I was making toast, and somehow got butter all over the inside of the toaster."

"What did you do, butter the bread before you toasted it?" the bo wielder asked in a joking manner.

There was a long pause as the blue masked turtle tried to find the best way to answer that question. The silence, however, was enough for Donnie.

"You did, didn't you," he stated in a resigned tone of voice.

The blue-clad leader paused again, before asking, in a quiet voice, "Is there a way to clean it out?"

Donnie instructed Leo how to clean the toaster, and the oldest turtle went back to the kitchen. He filled the sink with water, added some dish soap, and set the toaster on the counter next to the sink. He then pulled out the crumb tray and washed the butter off. Since some butter had gotten on the outside of the toaster, he washed that next. He balanced the toaster on the edge of the sink and used a wet rag to get all the butter off. He had just finished and was about to move the toaster the rest of the way onto the counter when it slipped out of his hands. The toaster fell into the sink, splashing him as it did so. He stood still for a few seconds before he could process this occurrence. As soon as he realized what had happened, he grabbed the toaster from the water.

He really didn't want to tell Donnie that the toaster had fallen into the sink, but he had to. The second youngest brother would find out eventually, and it was better for him to find out sooner rather than later. Leo slowly walked over to the lab, carrying the toaster with him. He peeked around the lab door. His younger brother was still entering data into the computer. The blue-clad turtle set the toaster on the floor outside of the lab before entering.

"Hey, Donnie?" he asked, somewhat apprehensively.

"Yes Leo," Donnie continued typing, not even taking time to look up at his oldest brother.

"Well," the blue masked turtle paused for a second, and then continued. It was best to get these types of things over with. "I think I might have possibly broken the toaster."

That got his second youngest brother's full attention. "What do you mean by 'possibly broken the toaster'? What did you do?" he asked suspiciously.

"Well, I was cleaning it like you told me to, when it slipped into the sink," Leo explained. He then defensively added, "It was an accident! I swear!"

Donnie just stared at the katana wielder for a minute. Then he facepalmed and muttered something along the lines of "It's always an accident." Then he asked, "Can I take a look at it?"

Hesitantly the eldest turtle retrieved the toaster and brought it over to his purple masked brother. The latter examined it for a minute and then sighed before speaking again.

"If it was just water that had gotten onto the toaster, it might have survived. Unfortunately, the water had grease from the butter mixed into it, probably from when you cleaned off the crumb tray. Even if it dries, it is fairly likely that the toaster will start a grease fire the next time someone tries to use it." He looked at it for a minute before adding, "It's probably best to just get another toaster."

* * *

It was about a month after the previous incident, and Mikey was making breakfast in the kitchen. Donnie had finally found a toaster in the junkyard, and this was the first time someone was using it. When Leo walked into the kitchen, his youngest brother asked, "Hey bro, want some toast?"

"No, I think I'll just have a smoothie."

"Okay, you want me to make it?"

"No, I think I can make it myself. It can't be that hard, right?"

The blue-clad turtle grabbed random fruits from the fridge and prepared them for blending. Unfortunately, he had forgotten to attach the lid properly, and fruit juice started going everywhere. Mikey, who had gone back to making breakfast for the rest of his brothers, suddenly felt something wet hit him in the back of his shell. He turned around and watched in horror as the whole room (and his carefully prepared breakfast) was covered in Leo's smoothie.

* * *

**I will do my best to make these situations realistic, but it is difficult to find reliable sources on what would happen to a toaster in certain circumstances. I would research this on my own, but I would prefer not to find out how my family reacts when they learn I broke their toaster, and I do not want to buy my own. Thanks for reading and please review. Feedback is very much appreciated.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry that this chapter is a lot later than I said it was going to be. I have a lot I'm trying to get done this summer and haven't been working on writing as much as I thought I would. I am still planning on finishing this; however updates will likely be more sporadic than I initially intended (hopefully not more than three months at a time). I have also started another fic, so that will take up some of the time that I actually **_**do**_** spend writing.**

**One thing you need to know before you read this chapter is that it is set sometime during season 2. In this season Hun was not a part of the Purple Dragons. ****This will most likely be the time period for the rest of the chapters I post, especially since the last chapter will ****(probably) ****take place during a specific episode in season 2.**

**This chapter is written with the assumption that Leo has broken or had trouble with many kitchen appliances in the past, not just the ones included last chapter. It is also written with the assumption that they have some way to go into stores to get food, especially since food delivery services were not available in 2012 (or at least none that I was aware of). I'm taking the idea of the turtles wearing clothing to make them look more human from the 2003 and 1987 versions and applying it to this story.**

**Special thanks goes to both of my sisters, who helped me a lot during the writing process, and The Phantom-Otaku, who beta reading this chapter. I would also like to thank everyone who followed, favorited, or reviewed this story. The whole reason this chapter did not take longer to edit was because I saw an email that said someone had followed this story a whole two months after I uploaded it. It really meant a lot, and it reminded me that people were still interested/enjoying what I had written so far.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.**

* * *

Something always went wrong whenever Leo tried to make anything in the kitchen. He could make tea okay (he was the only one besides Master Splinter who _could_ do so), but that was about it. He wanted to change this, which is why he was now trying to find an easy way to make grilled cheese.**  
**

The blue clad turtle had borrowed Donnie's computer to search for recipes, but he was not having much success. Most of them required a nonstick pan or skillet. He didn't think they had either of those, but even if they did, he didn't want to try his hand at stovetop cooking yet. Maybe after successfully making a few things, but not before then. The same went for the oven, which was unfortunate because most of the other instructions required this appliance. Then he saw instructions for making grilled cheese with a toaster oven. They didn't have a toaster oven, but it had given him an idea. Maybe he could make grilled cheese with a toaster.

He searched 'how to make grilled cheese with a toaster' and clicked on the first link that came up. It seemed easy enough, all he had to do was turn the toaster on its side, put cheese on the bread, toast the bread (cheese side up), and put the sides with cheese together when they were done.

The katana wielder went into the kitchen and got out the toaster and bread. Then he encountered a problem: he couldn't find any cheese. He remembered that Mikey had made a pizza the night before, so he decided to ask the youngest turtle where the cheese was. When he went to his orange clad brother's room, the owner of the room was reading a comic book.

"Hey Mikey, do you know where any cheese is?" Leo asked, after getting his younger brother's attention.

"Sure bro, what do you need it for?"

The blue clad turtle thought for a moment. He didn't really want any of his brothers to know what he was doing until after he had successfully made something in the kitchen (or until something had gone horribly wrong and he needed their help). His brothers (particularly Raph) had a penchant for teasing him about his previous culinary mishaps, and he didn't want to find out what they would say if they learned that he was trying to make something again. However, he really needed his orange masked brother's help, and if he tried to evade the question, the younger turtle would just get suspicious. When the nunchaku wielder got suspicious, he would often shadow his older brothers to find out what they were doing or he would pop up in random places at the worst possible moment (once Raph had been about to take the last piece of pizza and Mikey had scared him half to death when he popped out of the microwave yelling, "So you're the culprit!"). Leo decided it would be in his best interest to tell his orange masked brother the truth.

"I was trying to make a grilled cheese sandwich," he said.

Mikey gave his brother a worried look and asked, "It won't explode this time, will it?"

"I don't think so?" (The katana wielder really _hoped_ it wouldn't explode)

Apparently, this was a good enough answer, because the younger turtle seemed less worried. He shrugged, jumped off his bed, and started toward the kitchen. Leo let out a sigh of relief before turning to follow.

When he got to the kitchen, the blue clad turtle found Mikey digging through the fridge. After a few minutes of searching, the orange masked turtle turned toward Leo and presented him with a chunk of cheese in a plastic bag.

"Thanks Mikey," the katana wielder said. He was pretty sure he wouldn't have been able to find the cheese himself, even if he _knew_ they had some.

"No problem, bro," the youngest turtle paused for a second before continuing, "I actually ran out of cheese last night when I was making the pizza, but then I found this. It was covered in blue stuff, but it still tasted fine."

Leo was getting concerned, but he wasn't sure he wanted Mikey to elaborate. Against his better judgement, he decided to request clarification.

"Blue stuff?" he asked.

The orange masked turtle, who was oblivious to his brother's growing unease, responded, "Yea dude. I didn't notice it until after the cheese was on the pizza."

The nunchaku wielder glanced at his older brother, who was unsure of how to deal with the whole situation. Mikey took the other's silence at this point as a need for more reassurance.

"Don't worry! I even asked Donnie if it was okay. He said it was!"

This statement did not reassure Leo in the least. He knew that Donnie had been looking forward to doing an experiment that whole week, and the young scientist had only been able to work on it the night before. During an experiment, the purple clad turtle tended to tune out others around him (the only exception being if they broke something, after which they would find themselves locked outside of the previously unlocked lab doors in about 5 seconds). Given this, the katana wielder was fairly certain that his second youngest brother had not knowingly agreed that the unknown blue substance was safe for consumption.

"Did Donnie specifically tell you it was safe to eat?" he inquired.

"No, but he did agree to my question," the orange masked turtle stated defensively.

"Are you sure?" the oldest brother asked, "What exactly did Donnie say?"

The nunchaku wielder thought for a moment before replying.

"Um, I think he said, 'umm hmm, sure, whatever you say Mikey'."

Leo facepalmed. "Mikey," he said, somewhat exasperated at this point, "That's what Donnie _always_ says when he's in the middle of an experiment and not listening to you."

"Okay, but it can't be bad for you," the younger turtle said, before giving evidence to back up his argument, "I sometimes see similar stuff on the food I leave out in my room. I never get sick when I eat that, it even adds extra flavor!"

The katana wielder didn't look convinced, so the orange clad turtle continued, "You guys ate plenty last night and none of you got sick."

This statement set off alarm bells in the older brother's head. Needing more information, he asked, "Mikey, what do you mean by plenty?"

"Umm, never mind, forget I ever said that" the younger turtle said quickly (at this point he was fidgeting a lot and avoiding his older brother's gaze).

Something clicked in Leo's mind, and with some apprehension he asked, "Mikey, was the blue stuff the pizza's secret ingredient?"

His little brother looked at him with wide eyes before responding.

"Dude! Are you a mind reader or something? How did you know?"

The Leo felt _sick_. Mikey had made a jellybean, anchovy, and jalapeno pizza. This wasn't any of the other brother's favorites, but it was still pizza, so they ate it. It did taste a little weirder than normal, but the nunchaku wielder assured them that taste was due to the secret ingredient (everything the youngest turtle made had a secret ingredient, and most of them weren't _too_ bad). Now that the katana wielder knew what it had been, he wished he had not found out.

"Never mind, Mikey," he said weakly, "Next time something has a lot of blue spots, ask Donnie if it is okay to use when he is paying attention. Just because you haven't gotten sick from it before doesn't mean it's good for the rest of us."

After getting the orange masked turtle's agreement (the katana wielder was pretty sure it wouldn't change his younger brother's behavior, but it couldn't hurt to try, right?), and after the former had gone back to his room, Leo was left to figure out how to get more cheese.

Usually April or Casey were the ones who brought the groceries to the lair, but both of them were on vacation with their families. The redhead was visiting the farmhouse with her dad for some much needed father daughter time, and they wouldn't be back until the end of the week. Jones would be gone for another two to three weeks since his family had unexpectedly decided to visit some relatives in Maine. It was Monday, so it would be at least five days before either of them would be back. If the blue masked turtle wanted the cheese before then, he would have to get it himself.

Occasionally, if they _really_ needed something, the turtles would go to one of the 24-hour grocery stores late at night when there were less people around. They would need to wear human clothes though, and none of them really liked doing that. This was partially because human clothes didn't fit properly and thus were uncomfortable, and partially because of the type of clothing they had to wear. They always had to wear some form of jacket with a hood large enough to cover their faces. This wasn't too bad; the only problem was that it limited their sight and movements a bit. The pants were somewhat more difficult, as they tended to slip off the turtles' shells at the first opportunity (belts didn't help. Trust me. They had tried). After some research Donnie had found some suspenders at the junkyard (unfortunately they didn't match), and those seemed to solve the problem. Now the only downside to wearing the pants was that they inhibited movement while in a fight.

The worst features of the outfit by far was the shoes and the mittens. The shoes never fit, since they weren't made for mutant turtles, and they were impossible to move quickly in (Mikey had lost one in the middle of the store once. Luckily no one had been around to see it, and Donnie was able to wipe the security footage). The mittens were bad mostly because the nunchaku wielder had been the one to find them. The youngest turtle had decided that he and his brothers would look good in pink or purple hello kitty mittens (Why someone had decided to buy sizes large enough to fit them, Leo didn't know, but he could understand why someone had thrown them out). It was also the middle of the summer and no one really wore mittens during this season. People would occasionally wear gloves, but there weren't any gloves with just three fingers (if there were, they still wouldn't be able to wear them...people kind of expected to see five fingers). Since mittens were winter wear, they were much too hot in the summer. Also, they sometimes got weird looks because the hoodie/mitten combo was suspicious late at night in a grocery store.

Thankfully the blue clad turtle was able to convince Master Splinter to let him go topside that night (his sensei did not initially want him to go, but eventually agreed that it would be nice if Leo was more competent in the kitchen). He brought the clothing with him in a bundle since there was no way he was wearing the outfit the entire way to the store. Unfortunately, he had only been able to find one suspender, and the mittens he had found were mismatched (having pink hello kitty mittens was bad enough, but it was even worse when one was pink and the other was purple).

The errand was not as easy as the katana wielder had thought it would be. This was because the grocery store had too many types of cheese. There was shredded cheese, block cheese, and even different kinds of specialty cheeses. He was pretty sure he needed one of the block cheeses, especially since that type seemed easiest to slice. That narrowed the choices down a bit, but there were still at least thirty different flavors to choose from. He decided to go with cheddar, since that looked most similar to what Mikey had given him earlier. He paid for the cheese at one of the self-service registers and left the store, a plastic bag holding the cheese in his hand.

He had just ducked into an alley a few blocks from the store, and was about to start taking off his disguise, when he heard a voice behind him.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Turn around and hand us your wallet."

It was the Purple Dragons. Normally this type of a situation wouldn't pose much of a threat to the oldest mutant turtle, but he had left his katanas at the lair (Carrying swords into a grocery store generally drew too much attention, and they weren't exactly easy weapons to disguise). He was also still wearing the human clothing, which tended to hamper his movements a bit. His assailants had a variety of weapons (including a knife), and while he was pretty sure he could take them out without injury to himself, he preferred to not take chances.

"I don't have a wallet," he replied as he turned to face his would-be-muggers.

"Don't joke with me! We saw you leave the store. You bought something while you were in there. There's no way you don't have any money." This was Fong, who was the unofficial leader of the Purple Dragons. He was also the one with the knife.

Sid, the largest and most muscled of the group, decided to back his comrade up by adding, "Yeah, and if you say otherwise, we'll just have to make sure."

This was not heading in a good direction. Leo had fifty cents left over from buying the cheese, and he was almost certain that they wouldn't be satisfied with such a small amount of change. He didn't particularly want to have them search him. Even if they did, he was pretty sure they wouldn't leave him alone afterward. He was one of their enemies after all, and there was no way they wouldn't notice that he wasn't human if they searched him. The only way he saw to get out of the situation was to fight.

"Fine, you win," he said, as he dropped his bag on the ground. He took off his shoes since there was no way he was going to fight _anyone_ with them on, even if they were incompetent Purple Dragons.

"Hey, what do you think you're…" Fong started, but was cut off when Leo launched at him and punched him in the face. It wasn't as effective as the blue clad turtle intended it to be, since he was still wearing mittens, but it was enough to send his opponent to the ground. With one foe out of the way (however temporarily) the katana wielder turned to the next thug. It had taken a second for Sid to realize what had happened to his comrade, but that was all the time that the ninja turtle needed. He quickly kicked the Purple Dragon in the face as hard as he could. Two were down, one was left. Tsoi, the only other member of the group, had been given enough time to realize the gang was under attack, and was starting to bring his sledgehammer down on Leo's head. The ninja turtle quickly rolled out of the way, and then kicked the legs out from under his opponent. If his brothers or katanas had been with him, the blue masked turtle would probably have tried to finish the fight, which would often end with the Purple Dragons either knocked out or running away. Unfortunately, he was currently alone, outnumbered, and unarmed. While this would not usually deter Leo from fighting, he did not want to be away from home longer than he had to, as his brothers would eventually notice his absence.

There was also the problem of possible spectators. Not many people were out at eleven thirty at night (frankly, he didn't know why the Purple Dragons were out), but there was always a chance someone would pass by. The chances of being observed rose the longer the fight lasted, and while he was in disguise, he didn't want the description of the disguise circulating. If the police were told of the fight, the turtles were more likely to be detained as possible suspects since it was difficult to change what they looked like, even with clothes on. They would also have to find new disguises, and it had taken long enough to do so the first time (the only upside would be that they would have to find new mittens).

With this in mind, the katana wielder grabbed his grocery bag and his shoes in one hand. He was about to jump and grab onto a nearby fire escape with the other when he heard a noise behind him. He turned around just as Fong lunged toward the turtle with the knife. The weapon struck the block of cheese and became lodged in it as the blue clad turtle whirled around to defend himself. The other two Purple Dragons were starting to get up again, and Leo knew it would be risky to jump for the fire escape with all of them behind him. He decided on a different escape route. He grabbed hold of the cheese, yanked it off the knife, and sprinted out of the alley before his enemies could respond. He ran until he saw a dumpster next to a fire escape a few blocks away. He then jumped onto the dumpster and caught hold of the fire escape. He made it to the roof and ran from rooftop to rooftop until he was sure no one would be following him. Once he felt safe, he took off the rest of the human clothes and bundled them up again. He then located a street with a manhole cover, dropped into a nearby alley, and climbed down into the sewer.

Once Leo was in the tunnels, he grabbed the handles of the grocery bag and slung it over his shoulder. Normally, this would not have been a problem, but unfortunately Fong's knife had ripped a hole in the bag when the katana wielder had grabbed his cheese to escape. While this had not completely compromised the plastic bag's ability to hold things, the force created when the blue clad turtle put the bag over his shoulder caused the bag to break. The cheese went tumbling to the floor of the sewer.

Leo immediately noticed the change in weight. He turned around and picked up the cheese. He tried to see if it had been damaged, but while there was enough light in the sewer for him to find the cheese, it was too dark to actually see what it looked like. He would have to go home first. He wrapped the remains of the plastic bag around the cheese so that his brothers would not be able to immediately identify it, and then continued on his way home, hoping his brothers would not see him return. He didn't want to answer any questions regarding where he had been.

Thankfully Raph and Mikey were in Donnie's lab when he got there. They were arguing over who had broken the TV remote, and he assumed his genius brother was with them, especially considering the purple clad turtle would rather be banned from technology for a week (or even a month) than allow one of the others in his lab unattended. The oldest turtle slipped into the kitchen and unwrapped the cheese. When he had done so, his heart sank. It was unusable. When the cheese had blocked the blow from the knife the packaging around it had been compromised. The latter was further torn when Leo ripped his purchase off the knife. This wasn't the main issue though. If that had been all that happened, some of the cheese would still be useable. The biggest problem was that it had fallen in the sewer. Thankfully it hadn't landed in raw sewage (if it had, Leo probably wouldn't have even tried to retrieve it), but even so, the New York City Sewers aren't the cleanest place in the world. Something had gotten inside the ripped packaging. Some of it had been wet and had spread underneath the packaging as well, further contaminating the cheese. There was no salvaging any of it. He would have to go out again to get more.

It was after twelve in the morning though, and the blue clad turtle knew he needed to get some sleep before training (it officially started at eight, but he liked to get a head start by waking up at six). He decided he would attempt to finish his errand the next night, provided that his sensei allowed him to do so.

When asked the next day, Master Splinter agreed to let his oldest son go out one more time. Leo waited to go until ten o'clock at night before he made his way to the streets. He didn't want to run into the Purple Dragons again, so he went to a store in a completely different area of New York. He made sure to bring his katanas with him this time, since he didn't want a repeat of the night before (he put a coat over them to help disguise them, but it still looked kind of weird). He also brought extra change in case something happened again. He hoped nothing would, but it didn't hurt to be prepared.

He had just left the store and was about to enter an alley when he heard blasters going off. Groaning to himself, he headed over to see what was going on. He found the Krang fighting some Foot soldiers. The Krang appeared to be winning, and by the time the katana wielder had taken off his disguise, they had defeated all of their opponents. Leo just wanted to go home with his currently intact cheese, but it was never a good idea to let the Krang do what they wanted (even if he didn't know what it was yet). He set the cheese down and unsheathed his katanas. He managed to take out the Krang fairly quickly (there were only eight), and then discovered what the two sides had been fighting over: a canister of mutagen. He grabbed the mutagen (Donnie would be happy to get it) and went back to where he had left the cheese. When he got there, he found a mini crater. His purchase had apparently been hit by stray blaster fire.

The blue clad turtle was now very thankful that he had brought extra money. He put on his disguise, went back to the store, and bought yet another package of cheese. This time he made it home without incident. It was after eleven when he got back, which was much too late to be doing anything in the kitchen. He put his purchase in the fridge and went to bed. He decided he would make grilled cheese around lunch the next day

The next morning the oldest turtle woke up early, had a cup of tea, did his morning meditation, and then went into the kitchen to have breakfast before training. Mikey was there before him and was in the process of drinking a pizza shake (how the orange clad turtle could eat one of those things for breakfast, Leo didn't know).

'Wait,' Leo thought, 'A pizza shake? Didn't that require cheese?'

With a growing sense of foreboding, Leo asked, "Mikey, did you use the cheese in the fridge?"

The nunchaku wielder, who was practically bouncing at this point, responded, "Yeah bro, I've been wanting to make a pizza shake for a few days, but we didn't have any cheese. Today I finally found some! It's like it magically appeared there just for me or something! It was just the right amount too!"

The blue masked turtle had initially held out hope that some of the cheese was still untouched. At the last part of his little brother's response, however, most of that hope died.

"You used all of it?" he asked incredulously (how could Mikey use a _whole block of cheese_ in one pizza shake?).

Mikey gave his brother an odd look. "Of course I did. Cheesier pizza shakes are the best!"

Leo was not happy, and it showed when he responded. "Mikey, I had to take three trips to the store for that! I was going to use it to make the grilled cheese sandwich!"

"You went to the store? Wait, doesn't that mean you went topside? Why didn't you take me?" the orange masked turtle whined.

The katana wielder sighed. It figured that his brother would notice that part of the statement. He decided to address it, even though he didn't feel like doing so. "Not the point Mikey. Besides. Master Splinter said it was fine."

"It's still not fair," the younger turtle said. He then thought for a moment before suddenly speaking again. "Wait a minute, that cheese was yours?" At a nod from his older brother, Mikey continued, "Sorry bro, I didn't know."

"It's fine," Leo said, feeling somewhat defeated at this point, "I'll just have to ask April to get me some when she gets back from her trip."

* * *

April had come down to the lair the day before and brought the requested cheese with her. The blue clad turtle had put the cheese in the fridge (with a label for the nunchaku wielder not to touch it) until a good time to make the grilled cheese arrived.

That time was now. Leo put the cheese on the bread and put the bread in the toaster. It was at this point that he heard arguing from the other room. It sounded like Raph was really mad at Mikey (then again, when wasn't he?). He decided to go stop the argument before they started breaking things. It only took five minutes to resolve, much less time than usual, but by the time he got back to the kitchen, the toaster was going up in flames. The katana wielder ran to the lab to get Donnie. His purple masked brother rushed to the kitchen, grabbed the fire extinguisher (he had started keeping one in the kitchen since his brothers could create a fire with _anything_), and put out the toaster fire, which thankfully hadn't spread to anything else.

As soon as the last flame was gone, the bo wielder turned to his brother.

"What did you DO?" he bellowed.

Leo shrank under the purple masked turtle's glare, "I was just trying to make grilled cheese. I did exactly what the recipe said. I don't know what went wrong."

Donnie facepalmed at this. He took a deep breath, released it, and then said, in a weary voice, "Leo, don't ever use the toaster for anything except for normal toast. Okay? If you ever want to do anything else, make sure you ask me first."

After getting his older brother's agreement, the young scientist went back to his lab. ruined toaster in hand. To no one in particular, he said, "Maybe I should start stocking up on toasters. They seemed to get broken often enough to warrant it."

* * *

It was about a week after the grilled cheese incident, and Leo's brothers had finally started to tone down the teasing. Thankfully, Donnie had been able to find and fix another toaster fairly quickly this time, not that the katana wielder was planning on using it anytime soon.

The blue clad turtle walked into the kitchen, intending to find something to eat for lunch. He found Mikey with little flat circles of dough all around him.

"Hey Mikey, what're you doing?"

"You know how you tried to make grilled cheese with the toaster? I think it would work even better with mini pizzas! Then they wouldn't take as long to make!"

"Mikey, you do know that my idea created a toaster fire, right?"

"Don't worry, bro. It'll totally work. You were probably doing it wrong."

After failing to convince his youngest brother to stop the attempt, Leo left the kitchen to find Donnie. He figured that maybe his second youngest brother could talk some sense into the pizza obsessed turtle. It was another fifteen minutes before the purple clad turtle entered the kitchen. When he did, he found the toaster on fire. Again. After he put out the flames, Donnie turned to Mikey and gave him a piece of his mind. The orange masked turtle hid from the bo wielder for the next three days.

* * *

**Thanks for reading this chapter. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Feel free to comment, especially if there was something you particularly liked or disliked. I appreciate the feedback. Also, please let me know if you see any spelling or grammar mistakes. I do my best to fix any I find, but I may have missed some.**


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